


Everytime We Touch

by einsKai



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Idols, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Breaking the Fourth Wall, Friendship, GakuTenn Jesus Kai breaking the bread once again, Getting Together, Humor, M/M, Online Friendship, Save Yamato 2k19, Soulmates, based on a meme, give him a break, let Yamato say fuck 2k19, mention of drug use, oh and since theres GakuTenn, well I guess i7 is a modern setting too but you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-14 17:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17513105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/einsKai/pseuds/einsKai
Summary: Yamato didn’t hate music, he really didn’t.But having to listen to Cascada’s ‘Everytime We Touch’ for twenty-two years straight was torture.





	Everytime We Touch

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a dumbass and this is what happens if you leave me alone with a soulmate au [meme](https://twitter.com/alooxandra/status/1084112771120271362), because I WILL write it
> 
> have I mentioned that I love soulmate AUs
> 
> also rip Yamato, I love you but I love bullying you more. he never gets to take a break in this.
> 
> hope you enjoy this!
> 
> \- Kai
> 
> Edit 15/03/19: Now with a [playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPr4-oUhaGM8EB2cHrsSY4np18nf23dSM) by [LexMoooomoo on twitter](https://twitter.com/LexMoooomoo?s=09)!

”I can’t do this anymore“, Yamato groaned and let himself fall onto the worn cushions of the second hand couch in the living room.

“Soulmate troubles, old man?”, Mitsuki asked, and sat down next to him. Contrary to Yamato, who had just flopped down like a starfish his friend actually sat like a human being.

“It’s not my soulmate who is this bad!”, Yamato said. “I’m sure they’re amazing. Well, maybe they aren’t because it’s what I deserve, but this shit isn’t their fault.”

“Hey, be more grateful. You could have the funny clown song or something like that permanently stuck in your head.”

Yamato groaned just at the notion of this. Seriously, what did the universe think when it created this system? Some higher power had smoked a little much of that heavenly weed on the day they came up with the soulmate system. He could picture how the meeting had gone on that day.

 

_“So… what do we do for the motivation of those tiny creatures we made the other day? They’re way too smart to be motivated by something as simple as food and reproduction like we put in for the others we made”, had the guy at the front, the one who made the presentation and had the numbers, and who looked suspiciously like Mitsuki, said._

_“_ Oh _!”, another one had said, “How about_ love _?”_

_This one had been the more emotional one of this heavenly team that Yamato had just made up in his head. And he looked like Nagi. Weird. What a coincidence._

_“I know!”, now the one who had come up with that weird soulmate idea had finally begin to speak. He was slurring his sentences more than he would have to, and – hey! Yamato felt offended when he realised that the thing his own brain had come up with had put himself in the role of the idiot who was high on holy dope. “How about two or more people who would work good together –“_

_Not-Yamato-celestial-being-who-was-_ so _-stoned had inhaled some more of the smoke from his angelic joint and paused. It had been a pause that had lasted way too long to be an intentional dramatic pause. In his daze the man had just forgotten to resume speaking. The real Yamato who was just imagining this stuff hated this guy. Nothing unusual._

_“How about two or moooore people who would work good together have a sign that this is the case.”_

_It hadn’t turned out to be a question with this flat delivery._

_The blond one whose mental image that Yamato had come up with looked like Nagi too much to be comfortable, had clapped and expressed his joy, and then the madman of a stoner had come up with the madness that Yamato was going through right now._

That was totally how this happened.

Every person on this planet had a song stuck in their head. Permanently. There was no escape from this one particular song that one had to listen to for their entire lives – unless they found their soulmate. Being in physical contact with one’s soulmate, or keeping something that belonged to one’s soulmate on oneself would stop the constant flow of music to one’s head.

Not everyone had the same song, but there were doubles, as it was entirely possible, that someone had the same song stuck in their head as one’s own song, but didn’t turn out to be one’s soulmate. It was more likely to have a song in one’s native language as their soulmate song. Yamato didn’t know how it had been in ancient times, where there hadn’t been the digital age where one could look up lyrics to a song in a heartbeat, but at one point he had given up on thinking about the soulmate system in favour of absolutely hating it.

Yamato didn’t hate music, he really didn’t.

But having to listen to Cascada’s ‘Everytime We Touch’ for twenty-two years straight was _torture_.

Everyone around him always told him that he should be grateful that he got such an absolute banger as his soulmate song, but he just couldn’t deal with it anymore.

“Yamato-san”, Mitsuki interrupted Yamato’s musing, “Seriously, just pull through it. You’re gonna find them one of these days and then you’ll never have to listen to the song ever again.”

“You can talk”, Yamato groaned, “You haven’t had to listen to your song for how long now?”

“How do you not remember? It was in my first year of high school, when Nagi transferred to the middle school next to us.”

“So what? That’s like six years of not having to listen to your song. I bet you don’t even remember the lyrics anymore.”

“Yamato-san, Nagi and I literally listen to the song aloud in our room. Are you so stuck in lamenting your lonely old man fate that you can’t hear us sing along?”

Yamato rolled his eyes. Of course he heard his lovey-dovey flatmates sing along to ‘Black Hole Sun’ in their room. He just wanted to be salty and complain. Complaining out aloud felt better than just drowning himself in his thoughts and having more opportunities to listen to the song stuck in his head.

“You know what”, Mitsuki said, “I think you need to get out of your shell sometimes. Nagi and I were invited to a barbecue by my co-worker, you can come with us.”

“Did I hear free food and alcohol?”

“…I was aiming at ‘social interaction’, but free food and alcohol works too.”

 

Following his promise to come with his flatmates, Yamato found himself crammed into the backseat of Mitsuki’s tiny car that seemed it would burst at the seams if it actually carried five people. Mitsuki was driving, and Nagi had called in his boyfriend/soulmate rights to shotgun, while Yamato had to sit in the backseat with Mitsuki’s little brother and his soulmate.

Riku was an excitable kid, and he was basically bouncing in his seat. Yamato wondered if a seatbelt would even be effective with how much he was moving around. He just hoped the boy wouldn’t squash the muffins he worked on so hard to get his permission to eat and drink as much as he wanted at the damn barbecue. He had put the tray onto the floor of the car, because it hadn’t fit into the car boot anymore – it was a given, with the tiny car that had even tinier storeroom, and the sheer amount of salad and dips that Nagi, Mitsuki, Iori and Riku had stuffed in there.

“Hey Yamato-san?”, Riku asked.

“Yes?”, damn, not even his bitter old man could hide the smile that was caused by Riku. The boy was too cute, anything he did was like watching a baby animal take its first steps. Mitsuki’s eyes met his in the rear-view mirror. His friend smirked knowingly.

“Have you found your soulmate by now?”

The question was innocent and good-willed, so Yamato couldn’t be angry with his son – no, Riku. Not his son. He didn’t adopt children. He wasn’t a dad, no matter what Mitsuki said.

“No I haven’t. Haven’t really had the time with work and stuff, you know? Meeting new people requires time and energy I don’t have.”

“Ah~ Being an adult is hard, right?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call him an adult”, both Mitsuki and Iori said at the same time. Well, at least Yamato saw Iori’s lips move, maybe only Mitsuki had said it out aloud. Those damn brothers, ganging up on him.

He decided to change the topic.

“Nagi, what happened in Magical Kokona this week?”

“ _Oh_ , Magical☆Kokona was as _amazing_ as ever!”, Nagi began to ramble about the monster of the week, and how his favourite Magical Girl had defeated it with just the same moves as always, but apparently there had been an important clue as to who was the main antagonist of this arc, or whatever. Something about a goldfish. Yamato didn’t really care all that much about Nagi’s anime, but asking him was a sure way to gain access to an infinite amount of information, and a perfect way to get an exit from any uncomfortable conversation.

Riku began discussing the plot of another show the both of them were watching with Nagi then, and Yamato let the conversation about power-scaling in some show (“But he could beat that one super strong antagonist last arc, and when he loses to a bunch of chinchillas this arc that means the chinchillas are stronger than last arc’s strong antagonist!” “ _Oh_ , Riku, that’s _not_ how that works! It’s all about the situation!” “Maybe, but it’s so much fun to think about it this way.” “You’re right.”) drown out the two hundred’s time he had to listen to ‘Everytime We Touch’ today.

Iori’s soft gaze looking at Riku caught Yamato’s interest. The two of them had met about a year ago, when Riku had run into Iori in the streets, because he hadn’t paid attention where he was going, his nose buried in a book. They hadn’t noticed their soulmate song stopping while Iori was falling to the ground, but when Riku had offered him his hand as an apology, they had noticed the song stopping.

The both of them had been fast to start dating, unlike Nagi and Mitsuki, who had stayed as friends for the first years of knowing each other – which hadn’t been a bad decision, they had been very young back then. Iori really loved Riku, Yamato observed. It was a very interesting look on Iori, who was usually very secretive about what he was feeling, and in general careful about how he presented himself. That he broadcasted his feelings for Riku so openly was very unusual for him, but it was just how soulmates made people.

Not everything about soulmates was a pink fluffy world of perfect love and instant marriages, like movies and dramas liked to portray it, no. Rather it was a sense of completion, people pushing each other to become better versions of themselves. Nobody really changed after meeting their soulmate or soulmates, it was more like all people were closed buds, and after the damned song stopped playing they could finally bloom.

Not even all soulmates turned out to be lovers, and it was perfectly alright with everyone involved.

Hell, Yamato would be perfectly fine with meeting his soulmate and not falling in love, if this cursed song just stopped playing in his head.

He looked out of the window of the car, and recognised a street sign.

“Mitsu!”, he exclaimed.

“What is it, Yamato-san?”, Mitsuki had instantly caught on, and his tone was sweet. He sped the car up, probably over the limit of what was allowed in this street.

“I hate you.”

“You agreed to come.”

“You didn’t tell me the barbecue was going to be _here_.”

“I told you my co-worker invited us.”

“You didn’t tell me it was _this_ co-worker.”

“What are you gonna do? Jump out of the car?”

“Maybe I will!”

“No you won’t.”

Riku and Nagi had watched the exchange like they were watching a tennis match. Iori just hid a snicker behind his hand. He was in on this. Yamato would get revenge later.

Instead he sank down into his seat, as if not seeing the house ahead of them could save him from having been dragged along.

The car stopped and the others got out, to greet the men who were awaiting them.

Momo was the co-worker who had invited Mitsuki to his barbecue, and his husband and soulmate Yuki was someone who Yamato was very familiar with – a fact that he regretted.

He didn’t want to be here.

“Hello Yamato-kun”, Yuki said with that smile that meant he would replace Yamato’s beer with vinegar and put way too much mustard on everything on his plate whenever he wasn’t watching today.

“Hey”, he mumbled and sank further into the seat. Maybe he could fuse with the car and become a transformer. Wouldn’t that be the most epic way to escape an unwanted semi-family dinner? At least that’s what it always felt like when he met Yuki. He was like one of those aunts who gave way too slobbery kisses, but it was just barely bearable, because they payed well for their kisses and some minutes of his time. Yuki just gave the kisses and sucked up way more time and energy.

“I see you didn’t bring someone, so that probably means you haven’t stopped your favourite song yet.”

“No, I just have them in my pocket”, Yamato said dryly. The beer better taste good.

 

Yamato had been banned from the adult table after about five minutes of glaring at Yuki. (“Why is Nagi allowed at the adult table? He can’t drink.” “Nagi knows how to behave himself you big baby.”)  
He was now sitting between Riku and some classmate of Iori’s who was sipping on his apple juice. What Iori’s classmate was doing here Yamato didn’t know, but apparently his soulmate was also working with Momo and Mitsuki, so that was the explanation.

The classmate-boy’s soulmate was sitting at the adult table, so the boy was pouting.

“Yotsuba-san, stop sulking like this, it’s pitiful.”

“It better be.”

“That’s not a nice thing to do Tamaki!”, Riku said. So the boy’s name was Tamaki. “I’m sure Sougo-san doesn’t want to leave you alone, but he also doesn’t want to be rude to his hosts!”

“I don’t know about that…”, Yamato mumbled and looked over to the other table, where Tamaki’s soulmate was sitting, lightly flushed from the few beers he had consumed, and giggling at whatever Momo had just said. Didn’t really look like Sougo was just being courteous – he was enjoying himself and definitely not together with his soulmate.

Iori shot Yamato a glare, but ignored him. If this went on he would be banned from the kids table as well. Maybe he should continue so he could go home. But the free food was still tempting.

“By the way”, Riku smiled at Tamaki, “How did you and Sougo-san meet? I don’t think Iori told me.”

“Because he didn’t tell me either.”

“What? Why?”

Tamaki swallowed audibly. Suddenly he wasn’t sulking anymore, instead he looked pale. Wide-eyed he glanced towards the adult table, but neither Sougo nor anyone else was paying attention to them.

“I…can’t say it”, Tamaki’s voice quivered. “It’s too scary.”

“Woah, woah, don’t act like you’ve seen a ghost or anything”, Yamato said jokingly, to ease the mood, but when he said ‘ghost’, the boy visibly flinched. What the hell happened to him? Did he really believe in ghosts? Did he actually _meet_ a ghost? Now Yamato was curious.

Riku nodded in all seriousness. “Ghosts, huh…”, he mumbled. “I understand.”

Riku too??? That was ridiculous. Yamato would have expected more from him. But then again, Riku could be weird sometimes.

“Hey Tamaki, what is your soulmate song?”, Riku asked. “Mine and Iori’s is ‘Fast Car’!”

“The one by Tracy Chapman. I showed it to you when you asked me in first year, remember?”

“Yeah…”, Tamaki said, looking slightly better than before. “Ours is ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’.”

His English pronunciation wasn’t as good as Yamato would have expected from someone who had an English song playing in their mind. The chance was always that one’s soulmate was an English native speaker, so with an English soulmate song learning English was a clever step to take. Also as far as Yamato knew in this song the title was said multiple times, so Tamaki should have heard the song a _lot_ already, and his pronunciation could have been better. Well, maybe he just didn’t care much.

“That’s pretty amazing, right Iori?”

“Why do you think so Nanase-san?”

“Well with everyone here it’s like someone went to a website titled “Top 100 Timeless Songs” and threw a dice. We all have really famous western songs…”

“Nii-san’s ‘Black Hole Sun’ certainly is… and ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ is as well… You might be on to something.”

“And Yuki-san and Momo-san have ‘Enter Sandman’! It’s such a famous song too. And a good one at that. Ours is real well-known too.”

Yamato rolled his eyes. Such conspiracy theories about their soulmate songs would only expose the author of this story.

“What do you two do to keep it from playing?”, Tamaki asked.

“Iori gave me this masco–“, Riku’s voice was muffled by Iori’s hand. Of course Iori didn’t want to admit that the cute bunny mascot phone strap he gave his boyfriend was his. His love for those things was an open secret though, there was no way that Tamaki as Iori’s classmate didn’t already know about it.

“We gave each other handkerchiefs”, the younger Izumi said, which was the item he had received from Riku. Riku squirmed in Iori’s hold, and he let go of him. The red-head knew better than to try and correct Iori, but nothing stopped him from pouting.

“What are Tama and Sou using?”, Yamato asked, to not let the conversation end in awkward silence.

“I wanted to give Sou-chan Ousama Pudding but he said that was no good. We had coins for a while, but on our third date we went to a photo booth and each of us payed for a photo and then we swapped them and it worked”, Tamaki got his wallet out of his pocket and showed the photo to them. There were way too many weird stickers on the image (what was the chili pepper doing there, and what was that strange drawing in the corner? Did one of them draw that?) but Yamato could tell that Sougo really put effort into the item he wanted to give Tamaki. It was cute.

“Nii-san and Rokuya-san exchange shoelaces”, Iori said. “It’s practical, because it’s an everyday item that one carries anyway.”

“I like our solution better”, Riku said. “It feels more special that way!”

“Well they started the shoelaces thing in high school when they weren’t dating”, Yamato explained, “It was a non-romantic gesture back then, and it kind of became a tradition at this point.”

“So it really works with anything, huh…”, Tamaki mumbled. He had the spoon from his pudding hanging from his mouth like a cowboy in a western movie would have a piece of straw to seem more badass without having to smoke.

“Momo-san and Yuki-san exchanged rings.”

“That’s because they’re married, duh.”

 

Talking to the ‘children’ the time passed more quickly than Yamato would have thought. He didn’t get to drink as much as he had hoped to (alcohol was prohibited at the children’s table, and Yamato had to be careful to only sip on the can of beer he was hiding under the table when Yuki, Mitsuki, and Iori weren’t looking. Everyone else didn’t care about the rule, or they (Sougo) were too drunk themselves to notice.)

Soon it was time to cram into Mitsuki’s car again, and leave.

They hadn’t even left the street, when Nagi piped up: “Hey, _Mitsuki_?”

“Yes?”

“If there was a car _chase_ right now, and we would be followed by some _gangster_ –“

“What are you talking about…”, Mitsuki sighed, but nodded for Nagi to go on.

“Would you look over your shoulder to see if they’re still following us?”

Mitsuki thought for a second. “Of course not”, he said then. “I have side-view mirrors and a rear-view mirror for seeing what’s behind me.”

Riku next to Yamato gasped. He seemed to get what Nagi was getting at.

“Then _why_ –“, Nagi began.

“–why do people in action movies look over their shoulder to check what’s behind them?”

“ _Exactly_! Riku, you get me so well!”

Mitsuki rolled his eyes at the high five that followed, but he was still smiling.

“It’s for dramatic effect, obviously”, Iori said dryly. “Sometimes when driving you have to look over your shoulder, because things may end up in blind spots, but if someone is driving behind you they’d mostly show up in your mirrors… I think.”

“ _I see_ ”, Nagi said and nodded.

Riku mirrored Nagi’s nodding, which made Iori stifle his laughter, because neither Nagi or Mitsuki in the front seats could see them. Iori laughing was such a rare occasion that Yamato was actually surprised. Soulmates were really amazing.

 

On Monday morning Yamato had to go to work again. Weekends were so short – damn the flow of time. Wasn’t it supposed to be relative? Maybe that was why weekends were relatively short compared to the rest of the week…

“I think that’s more because the rest of the week is three days longer than the weekend”, his co-worker said and put a cup of coffee down next to him.

“Did I say that out aloud?”, Yamato asked with a pained smile and took a sip of the coffee. It was the terrible office coffee, but it was the best Yamato could get… and he would take what he could get.

“Yep”, Gaku said. “You should’ve become a physicist instead of working at this company, you’d make millions with your theory about time.”

“I think someone else did that before me”, Yamato sighed.

“That was the joke, yes.”

“Don’t say it so dryly like I didn’t get it.”

 

Yamato had his lunch in the cafeteria of the office, and while he was munching on the food Mitsuki had packed for him today. He was staring out of the window absentmindedly, and noticed something in the window on the opposite of the window he was staring out.

The building on the other side of the street was one of those expensive looking gyms with super-cool equipment spread over multiple stories. The room Yamato was looking into didn’t really have any _thing_ that piqued his interest… however there was some _one_ who did.

A tall man, probably around his age, was doing _something_ with some machine in the room. A group of people stood behind him and were watching him, so he probably was an instructor at the gym. He was ripped enough for that.

Yamato didn’t really have a type, at least he thought that he didn’t have one. Maybe this gym guy would change his mind…

 

“You seem _happy_ ”, Nagi said when Yamato came home and let his bag and jacket fall to the floor of the entryway.

“What part of me seems happy?”, Yamato certainly didn’t _feel_ all that happy. It was Monday, he had a ton of work to do this week, and ‘Everytime We Touch’ seemed extra loud today, except for lunchtime, when he had caught a glimpse of the hot guy at the gym.

“Your mental aura is making your bones glimmer!”, Nagi said, and Yamato really didn’t know what that meant, but it was probably some idiom from Noth Meir that Nagi tried to translate into Japanese.

“I see”, he said flatly and walked into the kitchen. “Is Mitsu back yet?”

“ _Oh_ , _no_ , _Mitsuki_ is still out. He’s giving a _special_ class today, together with Sougo.”

“So no food.”

“No food.”

“Should we order takeout?”

“That’s a _wonderful_ idea, _Yamato_! We can bond over the too greasy food messing with out _brain chemistry_ and you can tell me what is making you feel so good today!”

Yamato wished Nagi wouldn’t medically explain things like eating food like that – especially things that sounded like they could be untrue like greasy food messing with brain chemistry, that sounded too unlikely, right? Or was that something new they found? Was Nagi just messing with him? – but he could live with that.

When the two of them were sitting in the kitchen, some music from Nagi’s phone playing over the Bluetooth speaker system they had gotten Mitsuki for his last birthday.

After a while Yamato spoke: “So, I have literally no fucking clue what you’re talking about with my mood or whatever, but I saw a hot guy today.”

“ _Oh_ , thank you.”

“Not you!”

“Who else could it be if not me?”, Nagi smiled, “I’m _beautiful_ and everyone knows it!”

“Well yeah obviously, but I’ve known you since you were like, a baby.”

“You’re only three years my senior.”

“A baby”, Yamato insisted. “That would be like saying Riku is hot.”

“I am sure there can be an attractiveness found in Riku as well. _Iori_ would agree.”

“Nagi please don’t make me think about that.”

“ _Alright_ ”, the bastard laughed. He knew exactly what he was doing and it was pissing Yamato off. Obviously Nagi thought that pissing Yamato off was the funniest thing ever. Once he had moved all of Yamato’s furniture three centimetres to the left and laughed at him when he had stubbed his toe when he got up in the morning and went to blindly get a coffee. The toe had turned out to be broken and Mitsuki had to be woken up at 6am on his day off to drive Yamato to the hospital, because he wouldn’t stop complaining about the pain. Nagi had been sorry afterwards, but mostly because his soulmate gave him a piece of his mind, not because of Yamato’s poor toe.

“So, hot guy?”

“In the gym opposite of the office.”

“ _Oh_ , _Yamato_!”, Nagi gasped and raised his hands to cup his face. “That’s _scandalous_! You’re a _stalker_! I had no idea I was living with a pervert!”

“I wasn’t peeping on him in the shower or anything! He was just showing some people something and I didn’t even see more! I’m not a stalker!”, Yamato grumbled something into his non-existent beard that he himself didn’t even know what it was. “Wait, why am I even making excuses to you. I know that you’re just messing with me. Argh.”

He buried his head in his hands. “This is just stressing me out.”

“Is it your soulmate song again?”, Nagi’s voice had become softer now, more empathetic. This was the nice Nagi, the one who actually wanted to help him.

“I wish I didn’t have a soulmate”, Yamato groaned.

“ _My, my, Yamato_ ”, Nagi scolded him. “Don’t say that. I’m sure you will find happiness with your soulmate soon enough.”

“I’d be fine with ‘peace and quiet without my soulmate’ if I’m honest.”

“Ah, _Yamato_ …”, Nagi cooed. “You’re so lucky that you have such amazing friends. You will be helped.”

That statement was so incredibly ominous that Yamato feared for his life.

The last time that Nagi (and Mitsuki, he had been involved too. To what extend Yamato didn’t know, but there had been some kind of Mitsu-energy to the thing, so he knew that he had done _something_ ) had done something to ‘help’ Yamato find his soulmate he had printed around 500 leaflets and distributed them in the city, urging people to contact them if their soulmate song was ‘Everytime We Touch’ by Cascada. Yamato had checked the google statistics, and after Nagi’s campaign the regional search rate for ‘Everytime We Touch’ had spiked. Cascada should have paid Nagi money for advertising their song, seriously.

So Yamato had all the right to fear any help he would get by his friends.

 

He found out what Nagi had meant later that week at work, when he suddenly received a notification from an app he had never seen before. It wasn’t the first time that Nagi and Mitsuki had stolen his phone to mess with it, but apparently this time they had really taken it to the next level.

The app was of a website, a kind of forum for soulmate troubles. It was a semi-dating website actually, because every user had a complicated profile that stated way too much information than Yamato would have been comfortable with sharing, had Nagi and Mitsuki not lied on every single of the options.

According to his profile he was a man in his late 40s whose hobbies were sunbathing in his hammock and caring for his three precious cacti called “TioTio”, “Saboten”, and “Cactus”. He was suddenly only 1.50m tall and had already greying blond hair that he wore in a ponytail. He scrolled down the profile and found out that apart from his soulmate song none of the information were correct. What the fuck.

“Dating sites at the workplace, Nikaido?”, Gaku looked over his shoulder. “That’s your type? Didn’t know you were into that kind of stuff. This man is twice your age.”

“It’s not… It’s not what it looks like”, Yamato quickly hid his phone.

“Then what is it?”, Gaku grinned. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone that you’re into older men.”

“No, for real. I’m not into this guy. That’s my profile.”

Now Gaku was puzzled. “You’re catfishing as some old dude?”

“I’m not _catfishing_ , my roommates just set this shit up for me and I only just discovered it now.”

Instead of pitying Yamato and helping him through of his misery with a few compassionate words like a true friend was supposed to, Gaku began laughing. “That’s pretty amazing to be honest. You got anyone messaging you yet? Let me see.”

Gaku took his phone away from his defenceless fingers (to be fair, Yamato had let him) and went through his notifications.

“You got some answers to a question you asked. People are discussing the moral dilemma of disliking your own soulmate song.”

Gaku scrolled through the notifications. “Jesus, you made this woman super mad. She’s talking about the topic so seriously. Who cares so much about other people’s soulmates? I bet she doesn’t vaccinate her kids.”

He kept scrolling. “A lot of people are commenting that you shouldn’t be such a whiny bitch and be more grateful that you got such an absolute banger as your soulmate song”, Gaku snorted. “I love this forum. People are so nice!”

Yamato rolled his eyes. “Is there anything else?”

“You got a private message from someone who says they have ‘Everytime We Touch’ as their soulmate song as well”, Gaku tapped around a little and whistled. “Damn, he seems like a catch.”

“Why?”

“Okinawan Beach Boy”, Gaku said in English with a horribly fake American accent. “He’s a year older than us. Interests are exercising and his family. That’s way too nice to be your soulmate. You should keep looking for old men.”

Yamato decided that he had enough of Gaku and took his phone away from him. He looked at the guy’s profile. There was no picture, but he agreed with Gaku. He seemed like a nice enough person. Though Okinawa was a bit far to just go meet him and touch to see if they were soulmates.

He’d answer him later. Maybe when he had adjusted his profile a little.

 

Yamato didn’t end up adjusting his profile. He just went with whatever Nagi and Mitsuki had cooked up.

 

 **okinawabeachwalker** : Good evening Mr. roombacastusneanderthal. I saw your post when I looked for someone with the same song as me! I am also quite fed up with hearing ‘Everytime We Touch’ every day, haha.

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : hello

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : nice to meet u

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : or something lol

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : i guess i should say that im glad i found someone with the same problem as me

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : btw my friends set this thing up for me

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : i dont actually like cacti and im 22 not 47

 **okinawabeachwalker** : Oh, I see ^_^

 **okinawabeachwalker** : I’m glad then, I was giving up the hope that we could really connect if you were that much older than me.

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : yeah wouldnt be that great

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : good to talk to u

 **okinawabeachwalker** : The pleasure is all mine!

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : so

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : the fucking song

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : its annoying right

 **okinawabeachwalker** : Yes! I can’t wait until I meet my soulmate and get rid of this!

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : same lol

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : like at this point i dont even care about the love thing anymore i just want the song to stop

 **okinawabeachwalker** : I do care about that if I’m honest. The thought of having someone I’m destined to be good for? It’s an amazing concept.

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : kinda yeah

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : if the annoying permanent song wasnt a thing

 **okinawabeachwalker** : Maybe we are soulmates!

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : woah kid thats third date material

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : dont move so quickly

 

okinawabeachwalker stopped answering after that, and Yamato let his phone flop down onto his stomach. He was in bed already, the curtains pulled shut to prevent any of the last light from entering his room.

He wondered if okinawabeachwalker could be right, and if it wasn’t kind of strange to meet one’s soulmate like that. Over the internet? Knowing soulmate songs before touching, before meeting, before even knowing the other’s full name? It seemed oddly wrong to him, but maybe he was just getting old.

 

The next day Yamato woke up to another message by okinawabeachwalker, wishing him a good morning. Apparently he had just fallen asleep yesterday and that was the reason he hadn’t answered. Yamato was glad that he didn’t mess this up from the beginning, but he still felt weird about the whole thing.

 

At work Gaku came walking up to him after an hour or so. He looked so incredibly smug that Yamato would have loved to toss the bastard out of the window immediately, but unfortunately the office was only in the second story. The fall wouldn’t kill Gaku and then he wouldn’t _only_ have to deal with the lawsuit, but also _still_ have to look at the idiot’s face. Yamato had no choice but to accept reality and the torture that came with it.

“I have great news for you.”

“What?”

“You know that I’m hot right?”

“I shall refrain from commenting on this matter, as it is a very sensitive topic for you and a matter of personal taste for me.”

“Come on, it’s the real universal truth and you cannot fight it.”

“Please stop talking.”

“No.”

“…”

“Okay what I was trying to say was that I went to the gym yesterday and met the dude you were thirsting over at lunch the other day. Sweet guy. He just moved here and works as an instructor.”

Yamato filed the information away in the back of his head and decided to pick on Gaku instead of continuing this conversation. What was this, locker room talk? Yamato wasn’t going to grab anyone by the pussy or the butt anytime soon, he didn’t have that kind of energy.

“So you went to the gym? I thought you were ‘effortlessly the hottest human being on this planet’? Huh, Mr. ‘Nr.1-Colleague-I-Wouldn’t-Mind-Escorting-Me-Home-After-Drinking’ eight months in a row?”

“I didn’t know we had that kind of ranking here”, he said, “I hope all these know I’m taken…”

“Just tell me why you went to the gym already.”

“Oh, he actually went? I told him he should stay in shape because he is getting old.”

A young man who looked like Riku’s evil clone walked up to them and latched onto Gaku’s arm.

“You know, if my boyfriend is going to die of old age before I even get wrinkles I’d at least like him to be able to carry our groceries as long as he’s still with me.”

“Hi Tenn, love you too”, Gaku sighed. “What are you doing here?”

“You forgot the lunchbox I made, idiot.”

“So you came and brought it to me?”, Gaku reached up to his chest, as if he was touched.

“I don’t want you to starve.”

“I could always steal Nikaido’s lunch.”

“No you couldn’t. Eat your house-husband’s lunch like a good spouse.”

“We aren’t married though.”

“Yeah but look at you, all lovey-dovey. You’re a small step away from popping the question right here and now, and make me take pictures.”

“Actually that’s a good idea, but I don’t have a ring yet”, Gaku’s boyfriend said.

Yamato sighed in relief. One less thing he had to worry about.

“Who said that you should propose? That’s my job.”

“Why is it your job? You didn’t notice we were soulmates until I went and played ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ under your window at 3am and got you a noise complaint. It’s my _right_ to propose first.”

“Oh you’ll _eat_ those words.”

“Can you flirt at home?”, Yamato asked. “I get it, you’re madly in love. Also allow me to run the betting pool for this.”

“Permission granted”, Tenn said and smiled way too sweetly.

Yamato felt a shiver run down his spine. How did this person look so much like Riku, yet was so much more evil? Downright malicious. He was scared. Maybe this person was what had scared the Tamaki-kid so much during his first meeting with his soulmate.

“Is he friends with Riku or why is he looking at me like this?”, Tenn stage-whispered into Gaku’s ear.

“He’s friend’s with Izumi-otouto’s big brother, so he probably knows him, yeah”, Gaku whispered back.

“That explains this”, Tenn said. “I’m Riku’s older brother. Twelve and a half minutes older.”

“Oh. Twins. That explains why you look like his doppelgänger.”

“He kinda is Riku’s doppelgänger…”, Gaku mumbled. “An evil one at that.”

“Yaotome Gaku. If you continue this talk I will not hesitate to hurt you.”

“Existence is pain”, Gaku shrugged. “Now, don’t you have to be somewhere? I thought there was an interview today?”

“Right, the interview…”, Tenn grabbed his bag that he had dropped onto Yamato’s desk earlier. “Bye Gaku, see you later.”

The young man kissed his boyfriend on the cheek and disappeared.

“Thanks for introducing us, old man”, Yamato said and grinned. “Charming soulmate you got there.”

“Thanks, he’s the best. Don’t tell him I said that though.”

“Alright. You better hurry up with that proposal, or I’ll win the bet.”

“Hey, at least bet on me.”

 

Yamato and okinawabeachwalker’s conversations were going good. They talked frequently, mostly in the morning and in the evening, when Yamato was taking the train to work. They talked about various things, about okinawabeachwalker’s siblings, about Yamato’s friends (for some reason the other seemed to love the stories about Nagi and Mitsuki. It was a mystery to Yamato how one could think their silly pranks and shenanigans were amusing. Well maybe they were more funny if one wasn’t the butt of the joke all the time.), about school and work (okinawabeachwalker said he was currently working towards achieving his dream of independency by working various jobs at once, and Yamato was content with his office job. It was stable and it paid alright, what else could he want out of life?), and various other things. Yamato got along with okinawabeachwalker really well, and he was kind of hoping that the man was his soulmate after all. They could be great drinking buddies, even if they didn’t turn out to be soulmates, and Yamato found comfort in the other respecting his boundaries and backing off when it came to topics like his father (for both of them this seemed to be a bad area – Yamato was curious about the other’s story, but he sure as hell wouldn’t start prying) and soulmates.

After just a few weeks they were comfortable enough to joke around like old friends, and Yamato was surprised how easy it was to open up to okinawabeachwalker and just _talk_.

 

Nagi and Mitsuki didn’t like his newfound love for the forum they had signed him up to – even though it was one hundred percent their fault!

“Yamato-san, you’re only on your phone these days”, Mitsuki said one evening. “At least put it on silent mode while we eat.”

“Hey, I’m not looking at it at the dinner table”, Yamato said and took a sip of his beer.

“ _Yamato_ ”, Nagi shook his head. “I have noticed that you haven’t been paying attention to us at all lately… We’re feeling left out.”

“It’s that damn phone”, Mitsuki grumbled, “All that new technology is spoiling our youth… damn sorcery.”

“While I’m impressed by your impression of a disgruntled grandfather who notices that his grandkids are growing up together with the world that won’t stop me from chatting with my friend.”

“A _friend_ , I see~”, Nagi said. “Is it a _boyfriend_ or a _girlfriend_?”

“No such thing”, Yamato said. “Just _friend_.” He had said it in English even. One of his dumb friends who used too many English words in a sentence to call it proper Japanese anymore was rubbing off on him. He just didn’t know who. Maybe it was the blond one who was only half Japanese and acted stupid to seem cute even though he already found his soulmate and had absolutely no reason to do it apart from self-satisfaction. Well, maybe there was something else to that mysterious person’s actions, but Yamato had never done any digging in that area. That was Mitsuki’s job. Well, he might never know which friend he could possibly mean with this. His own thoughts were unfathomable to him.

“Yamato, come see a movie with us after dinner”, Mitsuki said.

“ _Yes_! There is a screening of _Casablanca_ today! _Iori_ told us about it!”

Since when did Iori care about old movies like that?, Yamato wondered, but ignored the curiosity.

“No thanks.”

“ _Why_?”

“I hate fun.”

“ _Yamato_!”

“It’s true. I’d rather stay home and drink beer on my own.”

“Booo, shitty introverted old man millennial.”

Yamato shrugged. “It be like that sometimes.”

 

They dragged him along to see Casablanca anyway.

 

Yamato ran into the gym instructor on his way home on a Friday. He hadn’t slept well and probably looked like a very exhausted panda with those bags under his eyes that hung down to his fucking toes, but hey! Totally the best way to meet someone very, very attractive, whom one had watched multiple times because of that exact attractiveness.

“Hello”, the hot guy said, and Yamato nearly combusted at how gentle his voice was. Of course he would be a gentle giant. Of course.

“Hi”, Yamato mumbled. He had thought that he could squish past him quickly, and move on with his life, but no such thing.

“I’ve seen you around here a lot, do you live here?”

Oh god, he had seen him. The hot guy had noticed Yamato and remembered his face. Why. What reason did this ethereal being have for gracing Yamato with his kindness?

“Uh, I work”, Yamato gestured into the vague direction of the office building a little behind him.

“Oh, there! I work opposite of that actually, at the gym. Part-time at the moment… I have some other jobs on the side.”

“I know”, Yamato heard himself saying and cursed his tongue for being so loose when he was tired. At least he wasn’t drunk too.

“Oh, you’ve seen me around too?”

“Yeah… I guess.”

“Oh that makes things easier for me”, the man said. “My name is Tsunashi Ryuunosuke and I think you’re attractive and an interesting person. Go on a date with me.”

Yamato turned into a living version of that one meme, except that he wasn’t a white woman trying to figure out maths, but a Japanese man trying to figure out what the hell “go on a date with me” meant when it came from someone as perfect as Tsunashi Ryuunosuke.

“Eeeeeeeehm”, Yamato said, unhelpfully.

“Ah, I get that this is sudden”, Ryuunosuke said, suddenly less determined. “It’s okay if you don’t want to.”

“No wait”, Yamato said before the gym instructor could leave. “Give me your number and I’ll give you a call. Deal?”

The worried face of Tsunashi Ryuunosuke who had come across as very confident just a few seconds ago showed relief. “Thank god”, he said, “I was afraid you’d say no. You see, my friends urged me to talk to you, because I told them I saw someone I liked, and they constantly nag me to find someone already.”

So it was like that. That side of the hot guy was really cute, Yamato liked it.

Tsunashi Ryuunosuke put his number into Yamato’s phone and called himself “Ryuu” with a small dragon emoji behind his name. Yes. He really was cute. Cute…

“What’s your name by the way?”, he asked.

“Nikaido Yamato”, Yamato said. “I’ll check my schedule and see when we can meet, okay?”

“Yes!”, Ryuu smiled brightly. “Talk to you later!”

He got onto a bus that went the opposite direction of where Yamato had to go. The bus turned a street corner and was out of sight.

 

When Yamato got home he fell asleep immediately.

On Saturday afternoon, when he finally awoke from his coma, he had halfway forgotten about the encounter with the hot gym instructor called Tsunashi Ryuunosuke, and wrote it off as a hallucination his sleep deprived brain had provided him with – or a dream. He wasn’t sure, but it had to be one of the two, after all there was no way that someone would see Nikaido Yamato and think “man, I really want to date this one”.

 

The office was full on that day. Yamato had already spent his entire lunch break texting okinawabeachwalker to distract himself from the chaos, but it was 2pm now, and the intern at the desk next to him was singing along to a song that was all too familiar – ‘Everytime We Touch’ by Cascada. Wouldn’t be all too different from a normal day at the office, if Yamato hadn’t had _two_ sources of the _same fucking song_ and one of them was _singing it wrong_.

Finally, Yamato snapped. He got up from his desk and tapped the intern’s shoulder. Wide eyes looked at him, scared. They better be.

“Listen closely kid”, Yamato said, “I’ve listened to this fucking annoying bastard of a song about a billion times in my life, and whatever the fuck you just sang was definitely not correct. It’s not ‘ _every time we touch, I get these feelings’_ , it’s ‘ _every time we touch, I get this feeling’_ and if you can’t even get that right then I doubt your English is as good as your resume claims it is! Now stop singing this song and do your fucking work.”

The intern was shivering, and they looked like they were about to cry, but Yamato could almost find no sense of compassion for the poor soul he just screamed at. Almost. He wasn’t a monster yet, even though some people would argue otherwise.

“My, my Nikaido”, Gaku came into his field of view and made at least one vein pop somewhere on Yamato’s body. He’d have to check that later.

“Are you implying that you had the time to listen to this wonderful song that often? How is that possible if you’re only twenty-two years old? No, no, that can’t be. You can only listened to is a little more often than 3.5 million times! Everything else is, sadly, not possible… at least not if you didn’t put it on in a hundred tabs and played it at twice the speed for days, weeks, years on end!”

“Yaotome Gaku.”

“That’s me.”

“If you say another word, I _will_ murder you.”

“If you do that I will haunt you as a revenant and tell you the exact number of times you’ve listened to ‘Everytime We Touch’ until you go insane. Which, looking at you right now, isn’t that far around the corner, if I’m honest.”

“Okay Yaotome, here’s the deal.”

“I’m all ears.”

“I won’t kill you, and you stop mansplaining shit.”

“Oh, a fellow feminist. We shouldn’t fight, we’re on even grounds.”

The poor intern was still close to tears, but at least they weren’t getting screamed at anymore.

“I obviously have the high ground.”

“I’m taller than you though.”

“The moral high ground is mine.”

“You snapped at a poor intern.”

“You don’t have to listen to your soulmate song anymore! You have no idea what it’s like, to be tortured by it all day long, every second.”

“I think you like to forget that everyone goes through that, Nikaido.”

“Yeah, but not everyone has ‘Everytime We Touch’ as their eternal soulmate song!”

“Okay, that’s fair. Let’s stop mock-fighting now, we’re scaring the intern”, Gaku said and smiled his best ‘Nr.1-Colleague-I-Wouldn’t-Mind-Escorting-Me-Home-After-Drinking’-smile. “You alright buddy? The big bad Nikaido won’t hurt you, he’s just a little pent up. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine in a few minutes. Right?”

Yamato rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Sorry for yelling, I didn’t mean it. And it’s nothing personal.”

“Go home for today, Nikaido”, Gaku instructed him, and holy shit, that’s right, Yamato forgot that Gaku was actually his superior. Maybe he should reconsider the way he talked to Gaku at the working place.

 

As soon as the door of their apartment closed behind him, Yamato opened the chat with okinawabeachwalker.

 

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : snapped @ work today

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : kid was singing our soulmate song and i screamed at them for singing the wrong lyrics

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : my superior/friend sent me home

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : ugh

 **okinawabeachwalker** : Oh no! That doesn’t sound too good. Will it have consequences.

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : nah prob not

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : still overall a shitty day

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : roommates arent home yet either

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : ill just wallow in self-pity lol

 **okinawabeachwalker** : Do you maybe…

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : yeah?

 **okinawabeachwalker** : Do you want to talk? To me? Over the phone?

 **roombacastusneanderthal** : uh sure. gimme ur nr

 

When he tried to put the number into his phone, a notification popped up.

“Contact information already in use?”, Yamato mumbled, and scrolled, until he found it. The name ‘Ryuu’ with a small dragon emoji next to it.

The memory came crashing back into his mind like a waterfall. He had talked to hot guy from the gym. Hot guy from the gym’s name was Tsunashi Ryuunosuke and Tsunashi Ryuunosuke had asked him out. And he never even responded. God damn. Nagi, Mitsuki, and Gaku would have a field trip when he told them about his own stupidity.

With quivering fingers he dialled the number. He waited, but he didn’t have to wait for long. After just one ring someone picked up.

“Tsunashi Ryuunosuke”, the voice that he knew already answered.

“Hi”, Yamato stammered, “okinawabeachwalker?”

“Ah!”, the person on the other end seemed to lighten up, “roombacastusneanderthal! It’s really you.”

“Yeah… well. Actually.”

Yamato didn’t know how to talk over the phone, he realised. He _hated_ phone calls. He was terrible at them and they made him uncomfortable. Why did he agree to call? __

__

“Uh”, he said. “Uhm. My name. My real name.”

__

“Yes?”, Ryuu asked patiently. Fuck, this man was an angel. How was Yamato allowed to even talk to someone like this?

__

“My name is Nikaido Yamato”, he managed to say.

__

Silence. Then.

__

“Yamato-kun?!”

__

“Yes. I can’t believe this.”

__

“You never called! I thought you weren’t interested.”

__

“Nah, you have no fucking idea how interested I am. I just kinda. Thought I dreamt it up. That you were interested in me too.”

__

“Oh my god… I have to tell Gaku.”

__

“Gaku?! Yaotome Gaku?”

__

“Yeah. One of my best friends. I met him and his soulmate when they were on holiday in Okinawa and after a while of being friends they convinced me to move here. It worked well.”

__

“Oh my god…”, Yamato groaned. “The superior I mentioned… that’s Yaotome.”

__

“Woah.”

__

“I bet he knew about this. I talked to him about our chats. And you. Both the yous I knew.”

__

“I… did that too.”

__

“Did he set us up?”

__

“Oh no… he’ll never let me live it down.”

__

Yamato cursed under his breath. “Well, nothing we can do about it now.”

__

Silence again. He wished he could see Ryuu’s face at least.

__

“Tsunashi-san…”, Yamato said slowly. “I don’t think I really want to talk about this over the phone anymore… Are you free right now?”

__

“Yes, it’s my day off.”

__

“Perfect. Let’s go on that date. We do have the same soulmate song. And I’m pretty sure that we have chemistry too? And you’re _smashing_.”

__

“Thanks”, Ryuu chuckled. “Should I get you with my car?”

__

“And he has a car too!”, Yamato fake-swooned with a laugh. “I’ll text you my address.”

__

 

__

The next day Gaku was surprised by Ryuu coming into the office at lunch time.

__

He greeted his friend, who just smiled at him like he had something to hide. Then he walked up to Nikaido Yamato’s desk and gave the still tired, but more relaxed looking man something.

__

When he had said his goodbyes and was gone again (after like ten minutes, what the fuck was that kind of short visit, and he didn’t even stay for lunch) Gaku went to the desk as well, to see what it was that Ryuu had given to the other.

__

“He said it was so the effect would last”, Yamato explained as he pointed towards a post-it note that had an emoticon drawn on it. “Doesn’t he know that soulmate items don’t expire?”

__

When Gaku tried to congratulate both of them in a group text, he accidentally created a group chat which would forever be known as ‘Gaku’s mistake’.

__

 

__

Months later Yamato moved out of his shared apartment with Nagi and Mitsuki, to live with Ryuu. The two of them spent their evenings drinking on the couch and falling asleep entangled in each other, and Yamato had to start a third photo album to keep all the daily post-it notes that Ryuu filled with cute and funny messages to him, and they woke up too late because both of them forgot to set their alarms and then they had to hurry, but it worked perfectly because they understood each other even when both of them couldn’t talk because they were still half asleep and trying to brush their teeth and hair at the same time.

__

And Yamato kissed Ryuu goodbye when he went to work, a new post-it note in his wallet, because he loved him, and _fuck_ , did the silence in his head feel good.

__

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> What is a song that is an absolute banger but you still wouldn't want to have it stuck in your head for your entire life?
> 
> If you want to scream at me about anything you can do so on my [twitter](https://twitter.com/eins__kai) or [tumblr](https://einskai.tumblr.com/)~
> 
> Have a nice day!
> 
> \- Kai


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